How Not to Sell a Hot Tub

[flipflopper]

Howdy, all, love the forum. Get most of my hot tub advice here. First time poster but I'm trying to help out sellers of tubs. I'm not trying to give pricing advice other than to point out the way I approach the act of buying on Craigslist and especially my thought process towards buying a used tub.

I'm in the market for a used tub and keep coming across many listings that for one reason or another seem like they'll never sell. I thought I'd put together a helpful page for sellers indicating the most common mistakes I see.

My guess is that many buyers of used tubs are typically looking for a quality tub at a very significant discount. There is a large amount of risk that a buyer assumes in buying a used tub. Things that can go wrong include: defects unknown to seller, damage in transportation, problems that (will) develop later, no warranty, no salesperson from original purchase to help you get the water chemistry dialed in, etc.

There's also the hassle factor. Someone looking for a tub on a budget is perhaps doing much of the work themselves, including foundation, transportation, set up, and perhaps even electrical. This also means they're likely price conscious.

Keep in mind that there are likely to be far more sellers of used tubs than buyers. Economics tells us that this creates a very favorable market for buyers and a very difficult one for sellers. Factor in all the risk, and it's no wonder these things depreciate faster than a Daewoo car.

All you hot tub gurus and those who have bought used tubs before, feel free to correct any misinformation or inaccuracies I have below. I'm still learning but thought I'd pass my limited observations along.

I humbly submit the most common mistakes I see when perusing the listings of Craigslist:

Mistake #1 - NOT MAKING YOUR HOT TUB PRESENTABLE





A presentable tub means the seller is willing to put in the effort to help it sell. That type of seller likely took care of the spa over its life. These two tubs are not cared for at all. Dollars to donuts they weren't winterized properly and they leak.

Mistake #2 - SEVERELY OVERPRICING YOUR HOT TUB




$6,500 for tubs that are 10+ years old just isn't realistic. My dealership will soon have new, mid-range Sundance floor models for sale with warranties that are priced the same or for less. I don't mind a little give and take on pricing, even a lot of it, but have never had much success on Craigslist negotiating on severely overpriced things. Pricing something a bit more than what you're willing to accept is smart business. But you can take it too far and turn people off.

Mistake #3 - NOT SHOWING A TUB FILLED WITH WATER




These tubs are both beautiful and, at the right price, one of them could be in my back yard. Know that I'd probably have to ask you to fill it up with water, heat it, and possibly even let me wet test it. I'd be willing to ask but it would be a lot of work to you and come at a cost for water, heat, and chemicals. I'd rather know that I could quickly come take care of this in one viewing session  where maybe we even negotiate the final price.

Imagine the buyer taking a chance on the $7,000 beauty, getting it home, and then finding out something is seriously wrong with it that running it would have turned up 

Continued below...

[flipflopper]

Mistake #4 - TRYING TO SELL A ROUGH TUB THAT HAS A LEAK OR OTHER MAJOR PROBLEM WHEN THEY'RE OFTEN GIVEN AWAY



This tub is a good candidate for a giveaway. It's not that it won't ever sell, it might. But most everyone else is giving tubs like this away for free. It is surely the fastest way to get the thing gone, if that's what you're after. If not, good luck in selling it.

Mistake #5 - MAKING IT SOUND LIKE THE WARRANTY WILL TRANSFER



Note that, from what I've gained on this board, no tub manufacturer will transfer a warranty on a tub to a 3rd party. (a comment below indicates that Beachcomber may allow this - but the seller would still stand to benefit by noting that a particular brand does allow the warranty to transfer)

Mistake #6 - NOT INDICATING THE YEAR, BRAND, AND MAKE



This tub looks really slick. Too bad I have no way of knowing what kind of tub it is.

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I'm sure there are a lot more mistakes one can make in selling a tub. I'm not trying to be a jerk in posting this. I just hope this can be helpful for those trying to figure out how to post a tub in a way that would intrigue a possible buyer.

[av8r]

Good info.  I never consider the asking price on anything used.  If I'm interested I'll go look and make a cash offer (usually a lowball) with a wad of hundred dollar bills in my hand.  You'd be surprised what people will do when they see fresh money. 

[Dr. Spa™ Ret.]

And the sellers have their own opinion. Over priced? perhaps in your mind...or perhaps you just can't afford something, which doesn't necessarily mean it's over prices. Most sellers are always going to ask more than a buyed wants to pay...this is America, and this is where negotiating comes in.

Your first few pics...They're asking $1500, probably will settle for a lot less. If I was the seller, for that kind of money, I wouldn't put much effort into it. It'll sell eventually. Same with the ones without water. HEY! If I believe you're REALLY interested, I probably would fill if for you..

I do a fair amount of business on Craigslist. Doesn't matter what I price something for, virtually everyone starts out offering less than half. This is why buyers on craiglist are known as "bottom feeders".

So, before you try to tell people how to sell on craigslist, perhaps you need to know how people BUY on craigslist

[flipflopper]

You raise good points and a valid perspective on the pricing issue. I'm not trying to come off condescending or to lecture anyone on how to price other than the gross overpricer. I kept my other comments about price relative to my own situation. Had I had more room to type, I would have made this more clear. But I will modify the mistake to indicate "severely." In the instance of the $6,500 tubs, they're still overpriced at $3,250 and that's at the heart of what I'm trying to communicate. Offering this seller a quarter of the asking price is almost always going to be perceived as the mother of all low balls (I've tried this in other CL categories and never had much luck). But maybe you're right, I'm not that much of a buyer...although I've always done pretty well for myself on CL.

Your comment about buyers offering half of starting price is accurate and gets at what I'm after. Buyers of used tubs are price conscious. I wanted to elucidate at least my reasons for why I am that way when it comes to tubs.

Truth be told, I'm definitely a bottom feeder on Craigslist as a buyer and have more than once let a wad of cash speak for me. But I'm not sure I'd take up my or the seller's time on a severely overpriced tub as I've found sellers of other items that are way overpriced uninformed in the past. That's all I'm trying to get across. I could have been more clear and have modified it accordingly. Craigslist isn't a hot tub showroom, it's an odd but accurate market where severely overpricing yourself probably does more harm than good. After all, there's always a similar tub listed for much less money that I can spend my time negotiating on.

But if I'm offering something for sale at $1,500, or even $500, you can bet I'm going to make it presentable. In the world of used hot tubs, condition, brand, and appearance are everything. I want to buy a hot tub that I can reasonably believe was well maintained. My point is that these sellers are not helping themselves in a market filled with similar but more presentable items. As someone said in real estate, "you can go broke buying deals." You could go broke buying one of these poorly presented tubs for the reasons I indicated and trying to fix it up even if you got it at 90% off asking price. But that's my personal opinion.

Thanks, your comment helped me get after what I'm actually after.

[av8r]

I will agree that "pictures sell" only if they're good pictures.

[Sam]

Some of the craigslist hot tub ads crack me up.  A 15 year old, nonworking hot tub has a negative value.  By the time you pay guys to process and take it to the dump, it's worth -$500. 

[wmccall]

Mistake #3 - NOT SHOWING A TUB FILLED WITH WATER


As a caveat, and i haven't done a craigslist ad in forever,  Showing a tub without water does show the seating better IMO, but if I couldn't post a pic of both with and without water, I would add in the text of the ad that I would fill upon demand.  I'd probably only buy a used tub if I could see it warm and running.

[HotTubster]

"Note that, from what I've gained on this board, no tub manufacturer will transfer a warranty on a tub to a 3rd party."

Beachcomber allows one transfer of their guarantee during the life of a tub. Would be especially worthwhile with their 5-year optional premium guarantee.

[Jacuzzi Jim]

"Note that, from what I've gained on this board, no tub manufacturer will transfer a warranty on a tub to a 3rd party."

Beachcomber allows one transfer of their guarantee during the life of a tub. Would be especially worthwhile with their 5-year optional premium guarantee.

  I believe Marquis does as well.

[Spatech_tuo]

"Note that, from what I've gained on this board, no tub manufacturer will transfer a warranty on a tub to a 3rd party."

Beachcomber allows one transfer of their guarantee during the life of a tub. Would be especially worthwhile with their 5-year optional premium guarantee.

  I believe Marquis does as well.

I thought I read somewhere here that Marquis used to do that but since stopped. I'm sure Markee will be able to verify that.

[Tman122]

Price conscious versus bottom feeders. Interesting twists on the same thing.

[Tman122]

Some of the craigslist hot tub ads crack me up.  A 15 year old, nonworking hot tub has a negative value.  By the time you pay guys to process and take it to the dump, it's worth -$500.

LOLOL

[Jacuzzi Jim]

 I have been trying to figure out what those white bar things are for on that first picture?   

[Hottubguy]

"Note that, from what I've gained on this board, no tub manufacturer will transfer a warranty on a tub to a 3rd party."

Beachcomber allows one transfer of their guarantee during the life of a tub. Would be especially worthwhile with their 5-year optional premium guarantee.

  I believe Marquis does as well.

I thought I read somewhere here that Marquis used to do that but since stopped. I'm sure Markee will be able to verify that.

They used too no longer though